waiting for ivf and struggling!

[2have4kids]

Hi ladies, thanks for all of your kind words. I made a bit of a fuss so they knocked me out. I had a lady anesthesiologist. She was an angel!

 

[Pinkie 33]

Good for you! Surely that procedure should always be without any comprehension of what's going on. How are you feeling? Hope you are resting up this weekend.

AlbaNY, great news! What a relief you didn't say anything to DH. Hope AF arrives soon so that you can get things moving.

How is everyone else?

AFM, DH home late afternoon yesterday and I was soooo happy to see him, massive hugs! He is working again today but we have tomorrow together. Making the most of it before he goes back.

Hope everyone is ok xxx

 

[mummy.wannabe]

Thank goodness they knocked you out! What a relief x

Glad hubby is home. Enjoy your weekend x

 

[2have4kids]

Hi ladies, I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend and in Pinkie's case DH too
I've got a cold /sore throat now and just recovering from yesterday. Just watching movies and being a Hugh Heffner housecoat weekend with soup and toast. I love these sorts of weekends, just wish doing taxes wasn't looming over my head

 

[2have4kids]

Is it really that much less costly than Canada even with the airfare? I ask because DH and I were in Cancun this summer and in a conversation with a local nurse she mentioned that many people visit Cancun for fertility treatment. Between that and hearing about members here going abroad I'm wondering if that may be an option to look into if we must do more?

AlbaNY, in Canada they only allow us to use frozen eggs which are extremely fragile and costly (eggs are much more fragile when frozen than embryos). Our clinic uses 2 American donor banks and the best results they've got is 1 in every 5 eggs working for a bfp (not even to live birth). Every 6 eggs cost $10,000 and we don't get access to even see the donors until we put $500 down. Then the clinic charges fees for the IVF. So with us wanting a family of 3-4 kids, only 1/5 eggs work for a viable pregnancy, it'd cost us $40,000-50,000 if we're extremely lucky. Overseas, IVF is $5000-$7500 and you get usually 5-6 full grown embies to put on ice. and with certain clinics putting back up donors through IVF (along with your primary donor), you're chances of frozen embies for future children is extremely good. We travelled to Prague for $1100 and accommodations were $800 (for a full apartment for 10 days). With Greece we've found the lodging is even less expensive and again, we're travelling through airmiles and aeroplan points (only paying the airport taxes). So it works out in the long run much less expensive and much higher chances of having fet for future children. I just have to do some tests now to figure out why I keep mc-ing. Canada is archaic in fertility legislation. Run currently by religious nuts & wingbats who keep picking off human & women's rights.

 

[MinxyChick]

Hi everyone,

2have4 - glad to hear they knocked you out, it should be standard everywhere. I think there are some countries that don't offer pain relief for egg collections - barbaric. Hope you've had a relaxing weekend as best you can. I haven't had time to start my investigations into clinics abroad yet.

Mummy - hope Nathan is continuing to feel more relaxed in himself, its horrible to hear how what happened has affected him.

Pinkie - so excited to hear about stims etc. It must be hard without DH around all the time, especially with the early starts. When we went via hospital the first 2 times, I used to set off at 6am for blood tests to attempt to be first - even getting there an hour early I wasn't first! It was a long day, hope you can make the best out of it - I got through with good magazines & candy crush. Hopefully stims will go really quick -I always thoughts they did.

AlbaNY - Sounds promising on the health insurance - hope you can get started soon.

Melbram - the stiches sound horrible. I'm such a wuss, get them to take them out.

I've learnt after 4 IVFs is that whatever I do the outcome will be the outcome, so I shouldn't stress. Not sure I'll be able to follow that for IVF5 though!
When I was on twitter the other day, there was a lady who had sex 3 times during the 2ww & she got a BFP. Not surprising she had amazing blasts. It just goes to show if they're going to stick they'll stick. She also had OHSS, was hospitalised at one point, and had a cold. I can't imagine even wanting sex at that stage!

AFM: my Mum has been in hospital a week now, she's in good spirits and is making very slow progress. Not surprising at almost 79. She's fine sitting but when she walks she's in a lot of pain accross her bottom and leg. I've been up the hospital twice a day, every day. We've sorted her out the not very good tv (£35 for 10 days), and there were good shows on last night so we didn't go to visit. It was bliss to have a bath, watch tv and not go out. I'm back to work full-time today, so can't go until the evening, hopefully she'll ring me at lunch time. My MIL should be going to see her this afternoon. No one helps my mum walk if I'm not there so that's a worry but I should get to leave early twice this week so can give her an afternoon walk then.
Slow progress but she's making progress. Also been moving her rabbit to our house and doing her laundary (a surprisingly large amount).

Might start looking into DE abroad this week if I get time. I'm looking for a clinic with the best sucess rates and can deal with low sperm, will ask some people on twitter who they've used, look at that thread from 2have etc. Also need to find somewhere we can get a donor with blue eyes, as we both have blue eyes that's a deal breaker (and everyone in both our families has blue eyes). Not too fussed on hair colour as I'm brunette & dye my hair blonde. Ideally 5ft 6 - 7 but would accept 8 or 5. Ha quite picky really! Looking forward to investigating.

Not sure if I should have any womb type tests, I don't want a new issue to flag up once we've got to blast.

Hoping to cycle after 3 natural AFs, hoping to be May/June, but need to sort my holiday leave too.

Hope everyone else is well & thank you for the kind wishes for my Mum. I can't get the 'thank you' button to work properly on my ipad.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

 

[2have4kids]

Hi Minxy, that's exciting that you're starting your search. I'm positive you'll be able to find a blue eyed donor, most clinics have all sorts where ever they're located. I understand how much effort you're putting in for your mom, when they get to the stage of being in the hospital, we really need to give them the walks, the extra food/socks/housecoat/tv things that they love to make their quality of life and health better. It's a lot of work but I feel we owe them so much for all the care they took for us when we were small. You're a wonderful person for all of your efforts. Glad to hear you had a break too!

Having done DE IVF once now and having learned some things from the other ladies seeing their ups and down on the de ivf board in the last few months, I am looking for a few extra things when interviewing clinics than I did initially:

-a back up donor (a few ladies had cancelled cycles because their donors only produced 3 eggs, one donor chickened out last minute and one was an egg share and the lady had a change of heart). When you pay doctors fees, accommodations & flight and get put through a BCP, Lupron, and estrogen cycle you don't want your cycle cancelled because they haven't got a back-up donor cycling for you. Reprofit didn't put a back up donor through a cycle for us and all of our stuff was non-refundable. We were extremely lucky she didn't cancel for any reason. Many clinics do put a lady through as a back up donor just to ensure you're not let down in any way. They can always freeze the eggs if they aren't needed.

-ask about their FET rates. From my experience with the ladies who've gone to the Czech republic, not one of us wound up with frozen embryos from our cycles there! There are suspicions that they're destroying embryos in order to force ladies needing second rounds to pay the initial fees again ($7500 vs under $1000 for fet). We had 4 grade b eggs on day 5 and the doctor and embryologist said they looked great and fully expected them to be a grade A by day 6 freeze, they destroyed all 4 in the end saying they didn't grow.

-ask the doctor how many embryos he'll put back. Many of the ladies on the board who've gone to clinics have had 3 embies put back and now have twins. The Reprofit doctor refused to put more than 2 back. Serum will do 3. This isn't as big a deal for some women as it is for me. I want a large family and I'm not afraid of twins. But with an average rate per embryo of 48.5% making it to bfp (not even to live birth) for me that's a pretty low rate of success for carrying to term when you're paying out of pocket ~$10,000 per try. I prefer a clinic that is flexible and will do 3 (provides you with a higher rates of success).
Cyprus has a flexible clinic, Serum in Athens has a really good immune protocol and is flexible.

The rates of success are pretty much between 60ish up to 80ish percent depending on which clinic you choose. And these rates are only the beta bfp values, not live birth statistics.

 

[Pinkie 33]

Minxy, good to hear from you. I hope your Mum picks up and feels better soon.

Wow, you ladies have lots to think about with your next cycles. Minxy, I think a rest for three cycles is a good idea. It so emotionally (and financially) draining, you'll need a break.

2have4kids, any idea when you can get started again?

AlbaNY, how are you doing?

Hope everyone else is ok xxx

AFM, day 4/5 of stims today (just done 5th injection) and first stims scan in the morning. I'm feeling twinges which I hope is a good sign. DH went away again for the week this morning. I was quite upset as my Choccy lab has been really poorly. She had an infection/temp/runs both ends. Vets gave her antibiotics. She is picking up a bit now so fingers crossed. Mum is coming to scan with me for company which should help. Just missing DH!

xxx

 

[MinxyChick]

2have4 - thanks for all that info. Stuff there I'd never thought about! The back up donor sounds a great idea. I'll be looking into all of it. I need to get on that thread! Thank god for forums.
Did you look into DE in the US? Was that more money?

Pinkie - good luck tomorrow. Sorry to hear about your dog, fx'd the antibiotics sorts him out. I hate to see animals unwell.

Afm- mum is moving to a rehab centre tomorrow (physicall rehab not drugs), that should be a another step in the right direction.

 

[Pinkie 33]

Minxy, hope your Mum is settling in ok. How long will she be there? Hope all is well.

How is everyone else today?

Scan went well, 11 follies seen measuring mostly 0.8/0.9 cm with one at 1.2 cm. Hoping for EC Monday but we'll see.

xxx

 

[AlbaNY]

2Have, thank you for explaining. I can definitely see why you'd go abroad.

Pinkie, I have to admit I am not so great. Yesterday and today have been rough days and instead of answers/progress I have more and more questions and things to sort out. I am so frustrated.

Much luck to you! I'll be waiting to read about your progress. Egg collection is so soon!

Minxy, I hope you find a good clinic without much hassle.

 

[MinxyChick]

Sounds good pinkie. Keep us posted.

The rehab place seems nice, mum has her own room & en suite. Had to bring our own tv in, they'll hopefully pat test it today (electrical test to certify it's not about to explode).

Mums walking is slowly getting better & pain a bit less. I think she might be in there 1 - 2 weeks, all depends on progress.

 

[AlbaNY]

Hi all.

Today I am sooooo much better. Yesterday and Monday I was having such a terrible time with the clinic. It was so irritating and difficult to get things sorted out, but this morning I called again and all went easily. Odd how that worked, but I am glad.

I have my appointments and a a timeline now! I am so happy!
Beginning next week I have weekly appointments for a sonohistogram, a trial run, bloodwork, etc, and egg collection would be in the first week of April. I'll be PUPO for DH's birthday if all this works out now. How exciting!

They told me my FSH level and said it was good, but it was 7.9 and estradiol 35. The charts I found online seem to show <7.9 as the range for someone 33-37. Do you guys know anything about that?

 

[2have4kids]

Hi Albany, my doc checked my fsh 3 times as it can vary month to month, They usually go with the highest score, the highest is a better indication of what they have to work with. My first fsh in Feb 2012 was 6.5, March was 8 and April was 16. They used 16 and recommended 3 iui's and then ivf treatment as soon as possible after that.She said based on my high estrogen levels my body was working hard to produce eggs-I can't remember what the numbers were. They only saw 1 egg that month trying to mature, normally each month we get from 10-30 eggs trying to puff up and make it to maturity. Did you have an antral follie ultra sound count? This was very telling about my condition. Each person is different but if you're in the States the more reliable test is amh, you don' need to do it 3 times to get accurate results, it won't vary day to day or month to month like fsh.

 

[AlbaNY]

2Have, I don't believe I had any of those tests or am scheduled to. Overall I am not too worried anyway, after all, we are going straight to the big guns: IVF and ICSI. We are giving it a good shot, but I wonder if it means that I am really lucky to be starting at 28 rather than in five or ten years?

Guess I will see very soon how I respond. I cannot believe how soon we are starting!

 

[2have4kids]

2Have, I don't believe I had any of those tests or am scheduled to. Overall I am not too worried anyway, after all, we are going straight to the big guns: IVF and ICSI. We are giving it a good shot, but I wonder if it means that I am really lucky to be starting at 28 rather than in five or ten years?

Guess I will see very soon how I respond. I cannot believe how soon we are starting!

I'm sure the earlier you start the better and yes going straight to IVF will be good. My friend has a high fsh (they don't have the AMH test here in Canada), she's in her 20's and it's as high as mine was at 35. Her OH also has issues too tho so it's really a very individual thing.

Well, I've been busy sending paperwork to Dr Beer in California so that he can get some immune testing ready for me. I met with my fs yesterday who said she'd take an endometrial biopsy for free for me to send to his lab for NKC analysis. I imagine I'll also have to do bloodwork. She said it could take up to 2 months to get my AF back. I'm going to wait for a month and then take the northisterone that I have left over to get it going if it doesn't come. I have Gonal F left and she said that I can do a gentle IUI cycle of chlomid + Gonal F to see if that helps me ovulate while I'm doing immune testing and waiting for another DE IVF. I'm also figuring out which clinic I can go to if I do have high NKC's in order to get IVIG infusions, it's a product that kills Natural Killer Cells and would allow me to carry a pregnancy to term. So ladies, things are looking up, as usual I just need to get the pedal to the metal and get these doctors working for me. I'm always SOO impatient, hate hate hate waiting.
In the mean time, we're cleaning house, getting taxes done and sorting through healthcare receipts so we can get our refunds (so we can fund all of this new stuff)
I hope everyone is doing well, Pinkie, Minxy how are you two doing with your cycles?

 

[Pinkie 33]

Albany, glad its all starting to happen for you and that you are feeling positive. When do you start?

Minxy, how are you? Have you done any research? Expect you are flat out with your Mum

2have4kids, wow! Sounds like you have a plan. Are you feeling ok after the op and everything? Two cycles isn't long, you'll be back in the game in no time. Hoping 2014 is our year ladies xxx

AFM, all ok. Really ready for DH to get back tomorrow. Ovaries are feeling full so hoping its a good sign. Scan on Saturday, cant wait! I've found it hard trying to do this on my own, run the business, look after poorly doggies etc. DH works so hard and I know he is struggling to be away too. Roll on EC/ET! xxx

 

[MinxyChick]

Good luck for scan today Pinkie

 

[Pinkie 33]

Thanks Minxy. Scan went well, they found 19 follies today ranging from 0.6 at smallest to 1.6 largest so a big range. Most are about 1 - 1.3ish. I'm back for another scan on Monday and hoping for EC mid week. Feeling tired now!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, any plans? xxx

 

[lanet]

Albany it seems like we are in a similar cycle! I was set for march cycle but af arrived too late. I'm now on bcp, doing trial transfer and saline infusion sonogram this Thursday and egg retrieval set for week of April 6!